Did you know....

The Bartholomew Fair is first recorded example of a fairground, beginning in 1183. These had acrobats, conjurors, jugglers and menageries to walk through. We learnt that menageries are a collection of wild animals kept in captivity for exhibitions.

In 1895 the first vertical loop was used, in the Flip Flap Railway in Brooklyn, USA. Amusement parks begin to open all over the world, with roller coasters as the main attraction.

We went on to learn about the history of our local fairground.... DREAMLAND!!! 

The scenic railway (wooden roller coaster) was a unique addition to the town and 500,000 visitors sampled its climbs, drops and bumps in the first 3 months of opening in 1920.

Dreamland gave Margate yet another iconic structure in 1980, in the shape of the new Big Wheel, which stood proud of the clock tower at 180-feet high. In the days before the London Eye this was very much a structure that had people come to look at from miles around.

We created a double page spread full of information, images, annotated diagrams and timelines based on the history of fairgrounds and circuses. Take a look as some of our work below.